Beat Feet Turns Your Shoes Into Synthesizer

Flickr VideoAlright, ‘fess up – sometimes, when you’re walking down the street late at night, you wish that you could tap your shoes to make music. It’s alright, don’t be shy – secretly, everybody who’s ever seen the video for “Billie Jean” wishes that.

Thankfully, a trio of people have deigned to make your wish your come true with Beat Feet, a system that turns an ordinary pair of tap shoes into a synthesizer.

The contraption works by attaching pressure sensors to a pair of shoes, which relay their information to a complex bit of software via a module that the team chose to put on a rather spiffy hat – which, in the video above, is itself attached to a rather spiffy dancer.

You can check out the technology and code behind Beat Feet, as they’ve got a series of detailed schematics and information on their website.